WatchKnow Brings Educational Vids (Plus Games & More) for Kids

Written by Jolie O'Dell / July 18, 2009 3:50 PM / 11 Comments

This post is part of our ReadWriteStart channel, which is a resource and guide for first-time entrepreneurs and startups. The channel is sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark. To sign up for BizSpark, click here.

From one of the creators of Wikipedia comes a new resource for students and educators: A web-based directory of videos designed to be searchable, reliable, and conductive to better learning for all.

According to executive director Larry Sanger's blog, WatchKnow is "deliberately flying under the radar now, because we want to make a big first impression -- launch should be early this fall... I don't know if it will be 'the next big thing.' Considering how everybody's trying to make the next big thing, it seems unlikely. But I do hope it will be really useful to school kids, teachers, and parents."

The discovery process for finding truly useful, age-appropriate, and on-topic educational videos online can be time-consuming and painful. WatchNow's index is organized by topic and searchable, making discovery lightning fast and one-click simple. Although still "very beta," as we like to say of newer apps with great concepts but under-construction back ends, the site offers a world of potential for tutors, lesson-planning teachers, parents, and students alike.

The site focuses on aggregating and organizing rather than hosting videos. The stated goals include providing instant tutoring for students and fresh material for teachers. As the site states, Like it or not, school children in developed countries get a lot of their information from video and also from the Internet. You can complain, or you can deliver knowledge to where they spend their time." We wholeheartedly agree.

Searches on the site yield specific videos as well as topic categories, when applicable. Searches can also be run and results returned for YouTube and other video sites.

A toolbar feature allows users to add videos instantly from other video sites, YouTube in particular. The site also states, "It will also be possible to drag and drop videos into the Directory, making categorization as easy as possible. We think that the addition of these two tools will make WatchKnow unusually easy to edit."

Other types of media the site will collect include Flash animations, games, slide shows, and other software.

We would love to see the site implement recommendations for further reading and watching, and the UI definitely needs work. But the site is young, and being a collaborative, open project, we're sure that beta testers and other participants will help make the prodcut top-notch by the official launch date.

Microsoft BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. Click here to apply.

Comments

Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteStart posts

Looks great though the communities that really need cheap and effective education are within the poorer areas where broadband is not even a common place yet.

This maybe a non-issue with the US but here in New Zealand there are suburbs where the bulk of the community still uses dial-up.

This site should cater for the communities that have limited technical capabilities. I think the slide show feature will be important here.

Cheers

Marc

Posted by: Marc Krisjanous | July 18, 2009 6:02 PM

Dr. Larry Sanger is brilliant! WatchKnow is Open for all! I just am a BIG fan of his initiatives http://bit.ly/vBJLT

Posted by: Sandeep Swaminathan | July 18, 2009 8:07 PM

This seems like a great resource for students! This would do well on http://appuseful.com

Posted by: NMN | July 18, 2009 8:51 PM

This site should cater for the communities that have limited technical capabilities. I think the slide show feature will be important here.

Posted by: Sesli Chat | July 19, 2009 5:30 AM

This seems like a great resource for students! This would do well on

Posted by: seslimekan | July 19, 2009 5:32 AM

great¡¡¡¡

Posted by: Jose | July 19, 2009 5:54 AM

My friend is using it have been very happy with it I have not tested it but it seems good

Posted by: danskursu | July 19, 2009 11:30 AM

I think this search tool will be very helpful to educators. I know that there are postings that comment on limited bandwidth. However, there are also systems with good bandwidth and a lot of activ boards or laptop carts where the students and teachers can really benefit from such a tool. Count me in!

Posted by: sue | July 20, 2009 8:34 AM

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Susan

http://onlinegamesforgirls.net

Posted by: Susan | July 21, 2009 11:19 PM

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Susan

http://onlinegamesforgirls.net

Posted by: Susan | July 22, 2009 7:04 AM

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Susan

http://onlinegamesforgirls.net

Posted by: Susan | August 2, 2009 8:42 PM